As Gary Locke’s tenure as the U.S. Ambassador to China draws to an end, the first Chinese American to serve in the post said he shares the pride of being Chinese with so many people in China.

“I’m proud of my Chinese ancestry,” Locke said in a farewell speech to the audience consisting mainly of Chinese young people in Beijing on Feb.26. Among the audience were master students from Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication.

In his remarks, Locke discussed a wide range of topics from simplified visa requirements to treatment of foreign journalists in China. Locke chose to speak to the young people just two days before his departure for the United States.

“The world is counting on the leadership from both China and the United States, but, most of all, from you --- the young people in the audience today,” he said.

As part of an effort to enhance the people-to-people exchange between the United States and China, Locke said he had dramatically simplified the visa application process not only for Chinese students pursuing education in the U.S., but also for ordinary Chinese citizens going there for various purposes as well.

“Before I arrived as an ambassador, Chinese visa applicants oftentimes would have to wait 70 to 100 days just to get a visa interview, and I thought that was absolutely unacceptable, so streamlining the visa application process became one of my top priorities as an ambassador,” he said.

According to Locke, the average wait time for a visa interview has now dropped to between two to four days.

In addition to further paving the way for Chinese citizens to go to the U.S., the ambassador and his family have been actively supporting ‘the 100,000 Strong Initiative’ launched by the Obama administration in May 2010 that aims to send 100,000 American students to study in China.

Mona Lee Locke, the ambassador’s wife, moderated a conference on the initiative last November in Washington that also featured Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong, who at the time traveled there for the annual China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange with Secretary of State John Kerry.

Answering a question from a Tsinghua student, Locke said that he was happy to see the growing amount of scholarship aid offered to American students by the Chinese government.

Locke also highlighted the United States’ desire to see “a better and more amicable treatment” of foreign journalists in China, giving them the freedom to report honestly and frankly, good and bad about China, “just as Chinese journalists enjoy these freedoms in America,” he said.

“As a permanent member of the UN Security Council that has hosted the Olympics and sent a space craft to the moon, China should have the national self-confidence to withstand the media scrutiny that most of the world takes for granted,” Locke added.

Locke said he has traveled to every province in China except four during his tenure here. He was on a mission three weeks ago to finish up those last four provinces, but the trip was hampered by scheduling difficulties.

“But I intend to be back at China’s offer, and I intend to finish those last four provinces so that I can say I’ve been to every province in China,” he pledged.

（by Deng Xianlai）